HANNETJIE’S STORY

I asked if my story could go on the website with the other stories to encourage women like myself to take the plunge and start a new life.

The Specialist Divorce and Family Law team of  Martin Vermaak Attorneys encouraged me when I most needed it. They helped me to have the courage to get divorced when everyone around me was telling me not to be a fool. They showed me that I didn’t have to stay trapped in a loveless, lifeless marriage. Better still – it was not expensive and it was quick and painless.

Six months have passed now and I still have to pinch myself when a man asks me out.  I say yes if I want to and go and enjoy myself because I really am free again after 30 odd years of servitude. Isn’t that amazing! I’m 53 years old and finally enjoying myself and having fun!

I married when I was 18 but we’d been together since we were 14 years and at the same school. There was never a question of getting pregnant, it was expected that I would bear him children and so I did. We had two wonderful children, first a daughter and then a son. They were my delight and eventually my reason for living. But he intimidated them and me. To get away from him they left home early, made bad marriages, became divorced, and are now on their second time around. Although I blame myself for this, I know it’s not really my fault. He was a monster once he got drinking and that happened every night and all weekend. He did violent things and was verbally abusive; we avoided him where we could but… I often used to think of divorce for myself, but people of my age didn’t do those things: we suffered in silence.

At the beginning of the year I watched my daughter beginning to ‘do the rounds’ again – ‘put herself back on the market’ they say. It was then that something got into me and I thought, why not me? Why should I wait for the old swine to drink himself to death and destroy myself in the process? I have a good job, which was my escape at first, but I’ve been there over 15 years and I love it. I talked to my friends but they laughed and said what was I thinking of at my age?

One day I was on lunch break at work and reading the divorce stories on the website of Martin Vermaak Attorneys but there was no story like mine. I thought there ought to be because I couldn’t shake off this feeling that I had to be finally free of the monster and live my own life while I still could. I phoned them and set up an appointment and hadn’t felt that excited for years!

Can you believe that about 10 weeks later I was free? Any women out there who are stuck in the same trap should do this for themselves and get a life worth living.

Martin Vermaak Attorneys showed me that divorce is not the end; it is simply the beginning of something else.

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